The common law of riparian rights such as prevails in the eastern or humid part of the United States, but modified to a considerable extent, is recognized in California, Kansas, Montana and Washington. The civil-law doctrine declaring that the waters are the property of the State is contained in the constitution of Wyoming; similar declarations are made in the laws of Idaho, Nevada and Texas. By the constitution of Colorado the water of every natural stream is declared to be the property of the public and dedicated to the use of the people of the State. Similar declarations are contained in the water laws of Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Utah. Under the so-called Wyoming system the water rights are in theory acquired by grant from the State. There is great difference among the Western States with reference to the control of appropriation. In some States this control is vested in a State board with right of appeal. however, to the courts. In others adjudication proceedings are initiated in the courts. Because of the difficulty of ascertaining the ordinary supply of water and because of the exagger ated claims which are made to its use there have arisen innumerable controversies so that in some parts of the arid region more money is being expended in litigation than in actual irrigation. In most States in which water rights are adjudicated by courts the law provides that all parties claiming rights to water from the same source shall be made parties to the action so that all rights may be determined in a single action. I.Vithout such provision, there may be an interminable suc cession of suits, A bringing B into court to determine their respective rights, then C com ing in and upsetting the arrangements and so on through the entire alphabet. The interest of the public or of the State is not necessarily taken into consideration at any time.
There are conflicting theories which arise from a difference of opinion as to the origin of rights to water. Throughout a greater part of the East there is insistence upon the conception that all rights to the use of water abide in and are derived from private or personal proprietorship of land and that any attempt at the invasion of the sanctity of prop erty will result disastrously. Nevertheless attempts have been made and are continually being made to preserve the rights of the pub lic and by asserting the theory of State owner ship and control of water, to set a limit to the broad claims of riparian owners. Farther than this there is still a third class who claim that the Federal government has the right and duty on behalf of all the people and for the general welfare to extend its authority be yond the narrow limitations of preventing interference with navigation and to legislate in such a way as to prevent this great natural resource from being exploited wholly for private gain, especially as to those waters which have not already been appropriated or put to beneficial use There is continual attempt of riparian owners and of large moneyed interests to extend and strengther. their control of water rights. At the same time efforts are being made by the State legislatures and by the Federal Congress to enact legislation protecting the general public in the proper enjoyment of water, which, like air, is essential to all life whether human, animal or vegetable. The conflict between these opposing theories and views is matting in innumerable statutes and court decisions, many of them apparently irreconcilable. The
unfortunate feature is that. besides provoking litigation, the largest and best uses of the waters of the country are not being given full consideration.
F. H. Neural a plant of the aquatic family Nyintireacar, especially of the genera Castalio and Nynitheta. These are found in fresh, still waters throughout the warm and temperate regions, and are often cultivated. Some can be easily raised from seed, and those which are hardy in the North will stand a very low temperature without damage. even to be encased in ice. They may be grown in tanks, or even in half-barrels, as well as in ponds; but the tropical species, such as Victoria rcgta, require the warmth of a greenhouse, or heated tanks, in our northern latitudes. The water-lilies are handsome plants, having more or less orbicular, generally peltrate leaves, either floating or, more rarely, immersed, and solitary flowers, of similar varying habit. These blos soms have several sepals and many petals, stamens and carpels, the latter distinct, united or immersed in a thickened receptacle; in color they may be white, pink, yellow or blue, and are sometimes very fragrant. The fruit is in dehiscent. somewhat fleshy, and like a giant berry filled with nuts, or. in the case of Nclumbo, the nuts are half sunk in pits in the flat-topped, enlarged torus. The seeds are large with fleshy cotyledons and are naked or en closely in pulpy arils. Water-lilies, even in the time of Pliny. were considered to he an antidote to love-philtres. The most famous of them is perhaps the giant or royal lily. Victoria ',gig (q.v.) Another which is very large is the Austrian water-lily (Castali4 ma'am), which is one of the finest of its genus. Its flowers are sometimes a foot across, with hundreds of stamens, and the color is blue, or even other tints. They do not close so completely at night as do other water-lilies The Egyptian lotus (Carrolia lotus) that was a favorite plant of the ancient Egyptians is often confounded with the Indian lotus (Neltimho), but is really a blue flowered water-lily It was a valuable plant to the decorators of that country, who copied it. and conventionalized its form in many of their architectural ornaments, and also in troduced it constantly into their painted pictures of life and customs. Its rootstock and seeds served as a food. (See Lams). The European water-lily (Ccistalto alba) is similar, bat has white flowers that are apt to open a little above the surface of the water, being supported on a stiff petiole. The flowers are not fragrant, as are those of the American pond-lilv (Cas folio odorata), The latter lovely lily rides upon the water. with creamy-white petals radiating in circles. the inner gradually narrowing, and passing by various stages into golden stamens in the centre. They expand in sunshine and dose in the early afternoon. The fruit is ovate and toccate and ripens under water. The leases, or lily-pads, a favorite food of deer, are orate-orbicular, with a deep sinus, and have Ivey long calindrical stems of unvarying thick ness, great flexibility and toughness. The thick, iteshy creeping rootstock furnished a brown dye for the early settlers, and was also used as a styptic and tonic. A variety of this lily is smaller and has rose-colored flowers. There are several other species of Castalia in the United States, including the handsome golden flowered lily (C. flora) of Florida.